Antique clock restoration with casting and gold leaf gilding | ARC Services
"A really interesting and challenging restoration project. This clock case was originally given to us to restore as a bag of bits. The case was completely re-glued. The missing figures and decorations were also carved by us out of wax. We then cast them in bronze, and gilded them with 24 carat gold leaf. All work performed by us in our Burleigh Heads workshop.
Many 'How To' videos and tutorials are available on both our Thinking Hand Studios and ARC websites for those interested in traditional conservation, restoration and hand making techniques.
Written and produced by Cal with 47 years experience as a conservator and maker with the intention of preserving and encouraging traditional hand skills." #Antique
We were asked to restore this very ornate clock case which was sent to us from America in bits.
You can see here some of the pieces all held together with nails and epoxy resin.
The carcass is English oak. You can see there it's been stained. That's part of the interior.
There's a moulding and some more of the mouldings which have been cleaned up.
Now here's the case. It's been reassembled prior to the full restoration work.
You can see that originally it had been ebonised even though it was on a figured walnut.
These are some of the enrichments that were missing and my son Damien carved all of these
from research done on similar clocks. They're all carved by hand in wax. There's one of the feet.
These are copied using silicone rubber, rather like this. There's Damien pouring the silicone
rubber in and there he's cutting the silicone rubber mould. That's a mould made of the foot
which is injected with wax. You can see there with the wax and here he is assembling the
clock case. You can see the original enrichments there and all these ones that are slightly blue
are turned into bronzes and this is a bronze. These are the bronzes cast from the wax models.
It's using a lost wax process. That's the top man with his three-headed dog which actually is a
four-headed dog. That's how the original was and there they are assembled prior to gilding.